CWW Week 16 - Day 4 - God In The Family

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Devotions, God In The Family
Today’s Devotion Spoken…

Joshua 24:15

‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’

Devotional.

We continue today to unpack the Resolution commitment with the tenth principle of manhood.

“I WILL learn from my mistakes, repent of my sins, and walk with integrity as a man answerable to God.”

Clearly a picture is emerging from this intensive look at responsibility and manhood in the role of the family. God has always had a plan and it is timeless. This is always how it was meant to be is it not?

From the dawn of creation, from the beginning with Adam and Eve in the garden.

No pain, no fear, no shame or guilt. Just being with God having all of our needs met and being as one.

But evil had another plan and here we are at war with ourselves, with God and each other.

Liberty of conscience has given us the freewill to pursue the original plan, but this can only happen if we co-operate with our Papa God. A key component of that plan has been established with todays Resolution principle. This is a three step starting point and it makes great sense.

Learn from my mistakes requires of us that we are honest with ourselves. I have said a thousand times that life is a journey of character development. This can only be successful with honest accountability.

It would be wonderful if God would materialise at the foot of our bed each morning with a list of all the mistakes we made yesterday, and a tutorial on how to do it better today. But we know that is highly unlikely. But He did send the comforter, the Holy Spirit to do that for us.

How do we access the Holy Spirt for this task?

Well we start by asking in prayer. That’s the first step. Then we work with the Spirit being guided by the Word of God in His bible. This is where the magic starts to happen.

Now we must think on how the spirit will develop our characters and help us learn from our mistakes. Lets look at some ways this may happen if we open our hearts and minds to His power.

  1. Honest relationships. This is most important. Look at who your friends are and what influence you allow them to have in your life. I have learned who my real friends are by challenging them with my own honest journey. To do this I need to stop performing and be real as an open book. Nothing shines a light on your list of friends more than honesty about yourself. Your list of friends soon becomes divided into two categories. Acquaintances and Journeymen. There are others of course and they fall into the category of runners. The culling process for me happened in three phases. First it was my divorce from my first wife when several friends and family scurried into the hills. The second was my journey into faith from atheism. Boy that was a real definer. Then of late it has been my very public stand against health mandates.
  2. Discernment. Having gone through a personal process of sorting the sheep  from the goats in my own life, I now practice discernment in who I align with and who I invite into my now diminished and refined circle. I have realised that fair weather friends or acquaintances need to sit in a seperate circle because it’s important to continue to share and bounce off these people who are all beloved of God and on their own particular journey. This is how we all grow. We are not meant to cut ourselves off from others but to be discerning and mindful of their journey and how it may change our own course. I am talking about those who’s faith you hold to the marrow of your bones. The Holy Spirit will show you who they are because He knows their journey as intimately as He knows yours.
  1. Accountability permissions. I have learned much by giving my trusted friends and family, permission to call me on my stuff and to hold me accountable for my actions. When any of them start a conversation with “I need to share something with you.”  they have my full and undivided attention from that point. This is a two way street however, and it only works if the permissions work both ways. You cannot trust anyone to give you wise counsel if they can’t accept it in return.  The Bible draws our attention to this mechanism in the book of James in chapter 5 and verse 16“Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” That you may be healed means that all involved may be healed not just you.

Nothing builds character and relationships more than these steps outlined thus far. It’s tough, but our real friends rely on us as we do them on this journey but we must be prepared to risk the friendship for honesty and integrity in the relationship.

Repent of my sins is the primary engine driving this journey because it is the ultimate purifier or filter that keeps the engine clean and functioning at peak performance. Your journey will be retarded by guilt form the past and that back pack of shame is freely taken from us by Jesus if we repent and ask Him to forgive us. The first words uttered by John the Baptist in his important work were “Repent, for the kingdom of god is at hand.”

Matthew, chapter 3, verses 1-2 “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’”

Like wise the first words ever said in Jesus ministry were Matthew 4:17

“From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” The essence of Christs sacrifice on the cross was for the forgiveness of our repented of sins.

Walking with integrity as a man answerable to God, can only come from the sure realisation, through faith, that God knows all our innermost thoughts and is watching us when we sin. We can fool people but we can’t fool God. The only way to complete the journey to eternal life is to walk with integrity to yourself and to God. Our YES  must mean yes and our No must mean no. Knowing that we can never fool God is a powerful incentive to live and walk in integrity. When we promise God we are truly and doubly accountable.

Questions.

  1. Are you prepared to love someone enough to lose them because your integrity demands truth in the relationship ?
  2. Are you entirely ready to have God reveal your character defects through those you are in relationship with?
  3. Can you now see that every mistake provides a golden opportunity to grow?

Prayer.

Dear Lord, Papa God.

Know my heart Lord and examine my ways and lead me into righteousness knowing that I am a work in progress. Help me to grasp every opportunity today Papa, to love my friends and family withintegrity, and equip me to handle and deliver truth when needed with love and compassion. Have mercy on my soul Papa and forgive me of my sins is my prayer in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

Graham Hood.

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